Do you have abandoned projects?

[Paulo Peres]

Well... last year I gave a proper burial for a too complex unfinished power supply project from 1997...

Couple months ago I finished a decent and simplified version.

Of course, I started from zero this time and added 30 years of experience. Was far more easy.

[Stray Electron]

   I used to build just about all of my own power supplies and other simple devices but after E-bay came along I found that I could buy far better PSs and for far less than the components to build one costs.  Today I find that that's the case with most electronic items so I haven't actually build anything (other than a few of the $1.99 kits from China just for kicks) in YEARS!   I still do a lot of electronics repairs but I doubt that I will ever see the day again when it's worthwhile to design and build anything from scratch.

[5U4GB]

not abandoned, but have a queue of around 12

Exactly.  Nothing ever gets abandoned, it just gets enqueued for completion at a later date, with the option to clear the queue on the demise of the person who owns it.

[tszaboo]

Dozens. Hobby and professional projects. Sometimes I loose interests, sometimes the best part is done, sometimes because it would require me to do some coding. Last one, I asked the Chinese EMS how much it would cost to assemble 5 pieces, and then I realized I'm not willing to pay that much for a few pieces of cheap components.
Professionally, if there was a customer for a B2B project, you start working on it, and then they sometimes just bail out last minute.

[mkiijam]

I would like to say something is regards to all this after reading through all these posts.

WE (at least the people who have posted to this chain) are "CREATIVE" people. We simply do NOT get any (or much) dopamine kicks from COMPLETEING anything! We can complete projects, don't get me wrong. We do it all the time. There is just very little in any "chemical reward" from the event of finishing.

This is in contrast to the people who are the opposite. Perhaps you know someone who seems Hell-bent on check-boxing everything... INCLUDING checkboxes! They are finishers. It takes both. Partner yourself with a finisher and SUCCESS! But don't ever press the creative process out of yourself by trying to become a finisher... I really mean that.

[coppice]

I would like to say something is regards to all this after reading through all these posts.

WE (at least the people who have posted to this chain) are "CREATIVE" people. We simply do NOT get any (or much) dopamine kicks from COMPLETEING anything! We can complete projects, don't get me wrong. We do it all the time. There is just very little in any "chemical reward" from the event of finishing.

This is in contrast to the people who are the opposite. Perhaps you know someone who seems Hell-bent on check-boxing everything... INCLUDING checkboxes! They are finishers. It takes both. Partner yourself with a finisher and SUCCESS! But don't ever press the creative process out of yourself by trying to become a finisher... I really mean that.

Speak for yourself. I specifically worked my career towards high volume stuff in later years. After spending a lot of care and effort producing a clean design, I want to see it rolling off a production line by the million. It seems so futile without that payoff.

[BadeBhaiya]

WE (at least the people who have posted to this chain) are "CREATIVE" people. We simply do NOT get any (or much) dopamine kicks from COMPLETEING anything! We can complete projects, don't get me wrong. We do it all the time. There is just very little in any "chemical reward" from the event of finishing.

I can relate. Working on a hobby project is fun but when I finally complete it, there is nothing more to look forward to. No more challenges or problems to work on. Improving a project is often a new project in itself and a path that I seldom take. The first "working" version of a project is often where to project ends.

I am also curious what projects do you guys have planned. Here's my list,

• WiFi dimmer
• Audio response calibrator for earphones (equaliser correction generator)
• A basic fitness band
• FreeCAD plugin to rotate the view in response to how a connected (over WiFi) smartphone is rotated
• USB Isolator
• PCIe x16 to x4x4x4x4 system using USB-C cables
• A decent bluetooth microphone, probably using multiple MEMS microphones

Here's my latest "abandoned" project. A gamepad with custom designed magnetic joysticks. Mechanical design was daunting, and I ordered the 3D printed parts with too imprecise tolerances. I never got around to designing the actual plastic body.
I swear I'll complete it...someday.

[Geoff-AU]

I've only ever abandoned one hobby project...  everything else has been seen through to completion.

I have had plenty of ideas that seemed like fun, I ordered the parts, but in the time it took the parts to arrive I moved on to another idea.  So I have a lot of projects I haven't started yet 

[p.larner]

sort of related,a few years ago i decided to fit cross needle swr+power meters to a diy atu(TMATCH) ,built the rf bridge then made a cal pcb with high+low power adjustment pots for power high,power low,swr fwd swr rev high and low,life got in the way so it got put on hold as i could still use the atu with an outboard swr/power meter,just finaly finished it yesterday,by this time i had forgoten all the pcb and powerswitch hi low connections,took ages to sort it as i made no schematic when i built it all and never marked anything,its now finished+ working fine,should of finished it back then and not left it,now looking for something else to finish off!

[EPAIII]

In my career I built a number of projects, some quite long and complicated. I usually finished them unless I was taken off one for a more urgent one by a supervisor/manager. Often I was the manager so I got to finish them most of the time.

In my own world, a hobby environment, I have a much lower completion rate. Some are just too much of a stretch, either technically or, more often, financially. I can't send unlimited funds out of my own pocket. So yes, I do abandon a lot more of my own projects.

I have been working on one main project for about a month and a half or two months presently. It is complicated but I am determined to finish it. I have a smaller and simpler one sitting here on my desk. I got stuck so work on it has slowed. Tonight I had an inspiration and grabbed it and my meter. Looks like I found what the sticking point was and what I need to do to work around it. I will probably finish that one.

Started another one about a week ago but it takes the back burner when I can do work on the main one.

But I probably only finish less than 50% of my personal projects now. I have one out in the garage/shop that is around 10+ years old. It is a tool design; mechanical, not electronic. It is finish-able, but I just haven't gotten back to it. Bucket list, I guess.

It's nice not to have the pressures that I had at work.

[p.larner]

sometimes best to leave projects that have a sticking point then look againe a good while down the road with a fresh mindset.

[Buriedcode]

sometimes best to leave projects that have a sticking point then look againe a good while down the road with a fresh mindset.

Very true. Sometimes something comes along that fits the application really well, and sometimes it all just comes together naturally.  Those stackable plastic clear boxes are very handy for "box of bits" project storage.  Coupled with a label printer greatly increases the chances I'll pick it up again at some point.

[nigelwright7557]

I have done many hundreds of projects over the years.
With that came experience of what can and cant be done so I have very few failed projects.
What does tend to happen is I try to sell some projects and some make it and some dont.
The ones that dont get forgotten about and  I stop trying to sell them.

[coppice]

You know those times when a company bleats about how a need arose and they were super quick providing a commercial solution? Every time I've been able to see what lay behind one of those fast responses, it wasn't really fast at all. Some abandoned project, often someone's pet project that was not sanctioned by management and had happened out of sight, turned out to be close to what was needed. They just took that, polished it, and put it in production.